Design Notes

Wall of AWESOME text ahead!

We fit A LOT into the first five months of the year... but we're not done yet! We've got some major, game-changing releases coming in AQWorlds this Summer. /Equip your Reading Glasses of Belief +5 and get ready for an eye-opening list of awesomeness!

This week I: Xan's Apprentice revealed!

Are you ready to get fired up? Xan is Lore's most powerful - and insane - Pyromancer... and he's ready to take on an apprentice. The only question is... which townsperson will it be?! Are YOU the unlucky one? If you aren't up to date on this story, /join volcano because this Friday's release looks like it will be Far(enheit) and away the most explosive Xan Saga release yet!

This week II: Alchemy Tradeskill!

Dumoose (with the help of Yorumi, J6, Samba, and Solrac) have been pushing to get the Alchemy tradeskill ready for release, and that time has come! This Friday you'll be able to train your Alchemy skill, which will let you create consumable potions by gathering and combining reagents!

Different reagents will be required to make different potions, and as you train your skill, you'll be able to unlock new ones. (Unless, of course, your attempt fizzles. You'll just have to see what happens then!) The reagents - like Chaoroot, Rhison Blood, and Dragon Scale) started dropping last week from monsters through out the game.

Honor Potion: Increase all damage by 50% but increase all mana costs by 15% for 25 seconds

Pure Chaos Potion: This viscous fluid hardly seems safe to consume. Your eyes water fiercely just from the fumes escaping this bottle. Drink at your own risk.

Next week: Releasin' like a J6!

A Bounty-Hunter's got to hunt... and J6's search for... something... is far from over! One thing's for sure: prepare for an EPIC journey through space, farther than you've ever been and WAY more dangerous than you dream.

Next week II: BLoD/Sepulchure chains update!

Beleen crafted CRAZY-hard quest chains for the Blinding Light of Destiny and Sepulchure's Armor... but they're not done yet! We know there was a lot of confusion over the weekend about these quest chains, so we'd like to clear the misconceptions up.

Blinding Light of Destiny/Artix's quests

Go on the quests from Artix to create the Blinding [X] of Destiny weapon series. These weapons are the FIRST tier of weapons in this chain. They will be required if you want to merge up to the second and third tiers of weapons. The art for each tier will evolve into a more awesome form... and the quest chain's ULTIMATE reward will be: the Blinding Light of Destiny axe that Artix wields!

Sepulchure's Armor/Vayle's quests

Battle through Vayle's quests to create darker versions of the Destiny weapon series. Just like with the Destiny weapons, they are the FIRST tier of weapons in a chain, and will also be required if you want to merge up to the second and third tiers. The quest chain's ULTIMATE reward will be: a new version of Sepulchure's Armor!

There was some confusion late last week about whether this was still true, but we clarified with Beleen and Artix today and it WILL be release at the end of the chain. It will be similar to the DoomKnight armor, but will be a slightly different color (based on the more intimidating shade we used in the Sepulchure action figure).

New art for the Blade of Destiny/Blade of Shade

The current art for the Blade of Shade and Blade of Destiny is NOT permanent. Dage is creating new, more awesome art tomorrow that will be used instead of the current placeholder art. (Made by my very handy Emergency Build-a-Blade file.) We will showcase the re-designed art in tomorrow's Design Notes!

We were NOT planning on releasing that, but it slipped in accidentally. We push hard every week to produce the most epic releases possible, but sometimes mistakes do make it in-game. For those of you who saw the art for they had on Friday, you got a sneak peek of the Necrotic Light of Destiny!

Coming this Summer I: Dage vs Nulgath War!

Evil vs Evil, a world-shaking clash of titanic villains! Later this Summer, Dage the Evil's Undead Legion will take on Nulgath the Archfiend's mass of followers in an all-out, no-holds-barred battle for control of the Underworld! Expect EPIC gear, never-before-explored areas of the Underworld, and an all-new cinematic cutscene animated by Nulgath!

Coming this Summer II: The next Chaos Lord!

Many of you might have met a Chaorrupted Chronomancer in your travels... but you should never trust a stranger. Especially when THEY are trying to get a feel for who YOU are. This Summer you'll be (re)introduced to the next Chaos Lord, and he has MANY plans for you!

A Hero is a Hero, no matter what time or dimension they are battling in, and the same holds true for you. Learn how AQWorlds came to be created when Galanoth slew the Dragon of Time, and how the merging of AdventureQuest, DragonFable, and MechQuest created who you are NOW... and what it means for your future!

Coming this Summer III: Guilds!

Guilds ARE coming this Summer and we are PLANNING to do a lot with them*! The initial launch will happen at the end of June while Phase II will take place in late July on a member-only PTR server. (Public Test Realm server, where members can test... and BREAK... the new gameplay features we want to release!)

June:

Phase I will let you create and join guilds. We have yet to work out a LOT of the details (we are meeting later this week to finalize numbers/sizes/etc), but here is what Yorumi has working so far:

Joining a guild

Viewing a list of fellow guild members

Guild-only chat

Guild name displayed under your name

July:

Phase II, Yorumi says, SHOULD let your guild create a customizable guild town in which you can position the buildings you purchase. This involves re-working the way AQW's housing system works, but Yorumi has been making good progress.

He also wants to set up some system of GvG and GvE wars: Guild vs Guild and Guild vs Environment wars. Those may have to come later on, but it is something he REALLY wants to make happen. No promises, though.*

Again, there are still a LOT of details to work out, like member perks, the rules for guild leaders/members, etc. We will do a bigger Design Notes post once we have decided on these things,but those details might not come for a while.

We are REALLY excited about getting Guilds in-game finally! We hope you all are looking forward to them, as well. Yorumi would like to hear what YOU would like to see happen with guilds, so if someone could create a separate brainstorming thread on the forum, he says "thanks!"

* A plan is NOT a promise. Sometimes we talk about things to see what you think of them. Until we say "this is finished and is releasing," plans are subject to change. We are always excited about everything we plan on releasing, and sometimes we are just as disappointed- if not more - thank you guys are when things don't work out.

Mod Search still underway!

Reens and Stratos have received SO MANY email applications to become an in-game moderator for AQWorlds! It will take them time to go through all the applications, but they WILL email the people they are interested in; unfortunately, they cannot reply to everyone. We will announce when those emails go out, so please hang tight.

Thank you to everyone who wants to help make this game as safe and awesome as possible, we really appreciate your desire to help!

Man, that was a LONG Design Notes with a LOT of information! We've got SO MUCH to do this Summer! We hope you guys are excited, because we are SO READY to heat this Summer up with epic releases!

The final showdown that no one will ever forget

Sepulchure. He is the most powerful and legendary DoomKnight. He unified all of the villains in our world. He slew the good King Alteon. He even slew DEATH itself! He started the zombie apolcoypse and wiped out every living person in he world... EXCEPT FOR US! ready your weapons and spell books friends. Now begins the final battle. We are all that stands between Sepulchure and the Champion of Light. No matter what happens tonight... our world will NEVER be the same again. BATTLE ON!

"Sepulchure" painting by Dage the Evil

DeathKnight Class & Zombie Quibble

You know... I did not think Moglins like Twilly, Zorbak and Quibble could be zombified. Guess we were wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things. For example, last night on Twitter a player tweeted me: "Hey Artix! Would you do if you came across a pink derp zombie?" To which I replied, "OMG!?!?!?!? WHAT!?!?! WHY! WHY!" (It may not have gone exactly like that... but the tweets already scrolled off my tweetdeck so this is how I remember it.) The rest of the team, seeing this, thought to themselves... "Wow! What a great way to thank Artix for giving us 5 cutscenes to do in only days!" and actually started making these nightmare inducing, therapy requiring, why... why.... oh why would you do this to me, pink derp zombie armors. I love the team, and will not begrduge them the joy of watching me cower under my desk, tweeting on my phone in fear of these pink abominations. But if you start sending me screenshots of pink derp zombie player hordes... I... I.... I am actually to horrified to think about this any more O_O

Ultimate Horror Armor (pink derp zombies!!!)

Pink Zombie Villager

Pepto Zombie Armor

Derp Zombie Armor

Zombie Quibble Bank Pet

The DeathKnight armor will be released tonight too! Check out two posts down for the full skill breakdown. Cyero's goal was to create a class which was damage-over-time over kill! It should be interesting, fun and very different from our existing classes to play.

Happy Birthday Daimyo!

Thank you to everyone who posted a caption on Daimyo's Facebook (Which now has over 2,000 likes!) Did you hit like yet? He loved ALL of your funny caption suggestions. Great job everyone! to celebrate his birthday, you can get the Daimyo pet for only on da.... *what is that boy?* ... ARF! *Really? ... ARF! *OK, you are the birthday puppy.* .... you can get Daimyo this weekend. He will dissapear from shops for another year and the merge shops to armor him will return on Monday.

"MORE BONES?"Caption inspired by Osman Oso Kaleziq.

Become a Member and Support the Game

If you have been enjoying AQWorlds and our weekly releases, please support the team by becoming a member. Not only will you be paying for the servers and keeping our coffee machines powered, you will also get an ever increasing number of in-game features and perks as a thanks for making it possible for the team to grow the game and make it better each week!

P.S. - In preparation for the release of Alchemy in 2 weeks, alchemy reagents have started dropping from boss monsters. Stock up on them!

UPDATE: Responses from the Grand Finale!

We give it our all every week. Not Friday gets a reaction like this... but one glance at the comments below shows why it is all worth it. Thank you!!!!!

@WonderpBread says, "AE Never fails to satisfy! Well worth the wait! :D BATTLEON!"@Gjappy says, "you guys did an exellent job with this release!!! *summons you a BIG cake*"@cyromansor says, "The cutscenes were amazing! *tear of joy runs down cheek* I loved the release to pieces!"@J1KTheGamer says, "im not one of those crazy fanboys that like everything but THIS RELEASE WAS AMAZING!"@Cryoskylos says, "1 word after finishing the release....mind blown o.o"@rinreos says, "same here i luv it :) its so awesome i finished it too, i so liked it :)"@JasonShadoesky says, "Best...twists....ever...FREAKING AWESOOOME"@_Neeko says, "clever Aerosmith reference in The Ultimate Horror's description xD"@AngryAwesomeGuy says, "Release was epic."@KingJulian says, "ARTIX THIS IS INSANE! THE RELEASE ITS INSANE INSANE I TELL YOU!"@Brisingr says, "That was a short release, but the cutscenes @Samba_AE rocked them out hardcore! Loved it, definitely looking forward to more!"@AlphaConduits says, "This release is soooo mother flipping awesome."@Suskelani_AQW says, "That. Was. UN-MAZING!!! Un-mazing? Get it? *no response* Err, i'll stop now.. That was amazing! Good work to all!"@DeitylinkAQW says, "THE MOST EPIC RELEASE OF MY LIFE! I can't wait til you can top it!"@ZeMageAE says, "MOST EPIC RELEASE EVER!"@Fried_Ryce says, "Those cutscenes, one word, 4 letters, EPIC."@Excavator_2 says, "OMG!!! Awsome!!! You have done it again, outnumbering your previously cutscenes! I don't think I will ever stop playing."@QuantumInsannity says, "OMG!! Sooo many great cutscenes and bosses and everything. But... still don't know what champion the "hero" is! Love it!!!"ShadowRavena says, "Okay then, thanks. And btw... best release in AQW history!"@Slimjim1516 says, "OH MY GOSH!!!!! That release WITHOUT A DOUBT is one of the BEST releases EVER!!!!! Seriously, it was AMAZING."

Note: We updated the map so it is easier to get the to the boss fight and replay the cutscenes. Once you have completed everything... there is now a simple menu that will let you replay all of the cutscenes and re-battle Dark Sepulchure. Battle On!

Tomorrow... we make our last stand.

Our once beautiful world has been devastated by Sepulchure's zombie apocolypse. We united and fought the zombie horde side by side. But one by one, each town has fallen. Well known friends including Rolith, Alina, Warlic, Valencia, Galanoth and Cysero haven fallen to the green zombifying mists... all hope seems lost. Now, the town of BattleOn is all that remains... three heroes brace themselves as the DoomKnight Sepulchure descends to lead the final assuault... personally. Tomorrow night is the absolute and ultimate finale of DoomWood II & ZOMBIES... remember, this is AQWorlds, anything can happen!

Tomorrow is... THE EPIC BOSS FINALE OF ZOMBIES & DOOMWOOD 2!

4 weeks ago, the DoomWood II: Whispers of the Dark Lord saga began in AdventureQuest Worlds. The original DoomWood told the secret story of Artix and is regarded as one of the game's best storylines. This brand new adventure continues after the "final ending" but is focused on legendary DoomKnight Sepulchure -- and his fiery red-headed daughter, Gravelyn. In my opinion, Gravelyn is one of the most unique and interesting characters we have ever created. A beautiful girl, raised by the undead in a giant flying dragon skeleton castle. She is the daughter of the world's greatest darkness villain and inherhited his throne when he was destroyed at the beginning of the game. Yet... we have never seen her cast a darkness spell or fight. Many villains have claimed she was weak and unfit, and attempted to overthrow her. We might have gone all the way through the game without finding out why... but the unthinkable happened. The cutscene at the end of week 2 re-started the game in the most dangerous "WHAT IF" of all time. It started AdventureQuest Worlds: ZOMBIES! Now, it is all about to come to its unbelivable conclusion.

Daimyo's Birthday!

As written in your AQWorlds Calendars, Friday is everyone's favorite "fearless undead slaying" battle puppy's birthday. Only during his birthday tomorrow can you obtain an in-game pet version of him via a special Daimyo Birthday shop in town. Oh! There are quests in DoomWood Part 2 to put armor on Daimyo if you get him as a pet. These quests will not be available while his shop is open... but will return once the shop closes.

About working on this saga!

I am literally on the edge of my seat waiting to hear your reactions from the BOSS battles and cutscenes tomorrow. I would like to thank the team for their super hard work... J6 for all of the amazing background art (the elevator and doomcrawler were perfect!), Yorumi for adding the new "monster intro animations," and for helping redesign the war system that has been getting rave reviews, and especially Samba who has been animating all of the killer cutscenes for this release. I would also like to thank all of the players who have been playing through the releases and giving me honest and encouraging feedback. I doubt anyone knows how much your comments influenced what is about to happen. This week's final showdown was hard to write.... it is Gravelyn's story. Something that many of you have seen coming for a long time now, and for everyone else it is going to be jaw-droppingly shocking. She will never be the same "weak little" girl again. I hope you enjoy it. BATTLE ON!

P.S. Help us name the upcoming 3D game and read my other posts at www.Artix.com

AVAILABLE FRIDAY!

This Friday, at noon, the wait is over. The collectors action figures will finally become available for purchase at www.HeroMart.com and MOST Toys"R"Us store locations in the USA will have them on shelves (in the card game isle). Players have been reporting that some stores already have them in stock! There has been some confusion about the dates -- so this post is going to tell you EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about the action figures (and a little more.) For example, both Toys"R"Us and HeroMart will have some of the rare black variants for sale.

Dates (Fully Explained)

Last Week: Some Toys"R"Us stores started getting the figures and made them for saleThis Week: Most Toys"R"Us stores will get the figures and make them for saleThis Friday at Noon EST:HeroMart.com will put the figures up for sale.May 23rd: 100% of Toys"R"Us will have the figures available for sale

The regular figures will be $20 at HeroMart and $24.95 at Toys"R"Us (Which is about the same if you include shipping.) The rare black variants will be $50 on HeroMart (reasonable, considering the original Deady's were $60 and sold out in the first weekend.) TRU may sell the variants for less... but the trick is finding a store that has them.

An Indie Company making their first toys!

This is, obviously, the biggest thing to happen us as an indie game company. Indie meaning... noone owns us. We do not have a parent company. No investor ever gave us a giant lump of cash. We are 100% funded by you, the players. So, most people are really shocked to find out that we designed the packaging, took our own photos, created the codes and in-game items, paid for the production of the figures out of our own pockets, and do most everything except for the actual molding and assembly (we would if we knew how, lol) here at the lab. We hope you choose to support us by getting the figures at US based Toys"R"Us stores or online at www.HeroMart.com (shipping anywhere in the world). If this is a success we will go on to create other figures... Drakath, Cysero, Galanoth, Warlic, etc.

"I do not always go to the beach... but when I do, people point and laughat me for taking pictures of action figures."

Toys"R"Us - Why our figures are not in their computers (again.)

I am probably not legally allowed to tell you what you are about to read -- but this has been a source of a lot of confusion, so I am going to tell you. Please use this information to help tell others who run into this problem. Ok? I have already been getting messages from player's who contacted their local Toys"R"Us in the United States and were told something like, "Not sure what you are talking about, we are not getting these toys in." or "These are not in our system." This also happened with the Card Game, Booster Packs and the 2012 Calendar which are for sale at Toys"R"Us now. Why does this happen?

The answer: We go through the company named Beckett to put our toys in the store. they are a great company to work with. We really like them. You may know Beckett as the company who creates the Baseball cards, Yugioh Cards, Magic the Gathering and more. In every Toys"R"Us there is an area filled with all of these type card games (including ours.) Beckett completely controls that card section of the store. They have their own people who manage the shelves... and their inventory is, in as simple of a way I can put this, tracked seperately. So, our card game, calendar and figures are located in that isle, but very likely will never show up in Toys"R"Us's computer system. It is weird. an I apologize for the confusion -- chalk this up to us being a growing indie company. One day I hope to have our game items in EVERY Toys"R"Us in EVERY country. But for now, I asked Beckett to send an email to each store letting them know about the figures -- and where you can find them. I hope it happens and helps. But at least you know, the figures will be located in the card game area with our other items... even if their computer says otherwise. Note: Not all store locations will have the Black Variant figures. As there are so few of them... it will take some hunting!

4 days left until they go on sale...

I hope you are all looking forward to Friday - both for the release and for the figures!

"The Lady of the Lake raised the sword... erm... axe... high above the water and threw it to the hero. But it was really heavy. And not very aerodynamic. This is probably why King Arthur used a sword."

Anything goes.

The Necropolis is a subterranean lair filled with the undead, necromancers, liches and unfathomable shadow creatures. Last week you ventured deep into its dark heart, battled the 5-headed dracolich, and discovered untold secrets. It appears Sally is re-building Vordred... "bigger, stronger, more skulls." This week, you have only one simple goal... go up one level and stop her from completing that abomination. Just go up one floor. It should be trivial for a seasoned adventurer like yourself. Stop the Necromantress Sally from completing Vordred and you will 100% complete DoomWood... 3 weeks early. But WHATEVER YOU DO... do not... for the love of all that is good... DO NOT go down. Who knows what horrific things lay deeper under the Necropolis.

Just released in DoomWood II - Week #2

New storyline map... feautring a few things we have never done before.

5 new cutscenes... including "THE END OF DOOMWOOD"

2 more steps to the Blinding Light of Destiny Quest Chain

NOTE: New Seplchure Armor quests coming next Tuesday.

Nulgath Loyalty Shop opens!

Mother's Day Shop opens!

Do you have the undead battling pomeranian pet, Daimyo? Members can find a way to give him Light or Dark armor (Wait.. why is there Dark Armor?) Note: This can only be done once and is permanent. Daimyo is only released once a year on his birthday.

New monsters and items!

Bonus: TWO Challenge battles for Members!

All-new Doomwood Gear!

All of AQW's artists have been pushing hard this week to release new items to fill your inventories to bursting, and MAN did they do a great job! Check out this gear! (All found in the /necropolis and /necrocavern maps!)

Armor of Skulls, Collarbone Cape, and Dark-Armored Daimyo!

All of Doomwood's gear this week is either member or free-player gold and can be found in the Doomwood II Rep shop, the Paladin and Necromancer shops, and both the Artix and Vayle merge shops, plus all of the sweet accessories that drop off the monsters!

Luminous Armor/Helm/Wings and Ristoluto polearm

Nulgath Loyalty Shop!

Alright, you Nulgath fans, tonight's the night! Ready to take on and take down all those Legion followers? Here's your chance to get the gear that proves your loyalty to your favorite artist! Check this post from last night's Design Notes for item and price previews and find Nulgath in Battleon! Summer is Coming... and so is WAR!

"Sepulchure", by Dage the Evil

As many of you are very familiar, Sepulchure, the DoomKnight, was the main villian of DragonFable and everyone believed he was going to be the main villain of AdventureQuest Worlds until the shocking twist when Drakath ripped his very essence from his chest and crushed it at the beginning of the game. From that moment on, Sepulchure's daughter Gravelyn became the leader of the Shadowscythe.

Many villains protested that "a little girl wearing her daddy's scary armor" was unfit to rule the forces of Evil. Thus far there have been three seperate attempts from villains to overthrow her. It has been difficult for her, filling the shoes of the most powerful DoomKnight who ever un-lived. But there is something special about Gravelyn... and a special bond between her and the heroes of the world (both Evil and Good.)

As you are about to discover tonight, the focus of our continuing story in DoomWood is not about Artix... it is Gravelyn's story. It will be dark. Alas, to understand her, you really need to understand... the DoomKnight Sepulchure.

"Sepulchure" painting by Dage the Evil

We uploaded the high res 1920x1200 Wallpaper of it for you to get into the spirit of DOOM with!

Collector Action Figures coming May 18th

While I am on the topic of Sepulchure... check out this picture from our photoshoot in the HeroMart chamber yesterday. Both the Artix and Sepulchure figures will be available starting May 18th at U.S. based Toys"R"Us stores and www.HeroMart.com. The figures will be $20 and include 5 exclusive cards for the card game, and a treasure chest of in-game items including a special class, armor, weapon, helm and castle (castle has a working trap door feature.) These are our first ever action figures... so we really went overboard. There are also special "black armor variants" for which will be $50.

The Artix and Sepulchure Action Figures Are Almost HERE!

In fact, we've started to receive word that the action figures have already started to arrive in some U.S. Toys R Us Stores but they should be in HeroMart by around the end of this month!

The Action Figures will be available in EVERY Toys R Us location in the continental United States in the collectible card section, with our other stuff like the Card Game, Booster Packs and 2012 Calendars. Sadly, only U.S. Toys R Us stores will get the toys (Want to know why? READ THIS!) but as soon as they arrive on HeroMart, they will start being delivered everywhere that HeroMart delivers (69 countries and more added all the time)!

So today seems like a good time to do the skill breakdown for the DoomKnight Overlord and Paladin High Lord classes that come with the toys (in addition to 5 exclusive battle cards, a legendary helm, weapon and armor that matches the class art exactly and an exclusive in-game castle or fortress!).

Good guys won the coin toss so they go first...

PALADIN HIGH LORD CLASS SKILL SET

Everyone knows that the Paladin Order exists to battle the forces of darkness and the unnatural and unholy threat of the undead but there are more than one kind of paladin. There are Paladin Loremasters, Weaponmasters, Recruiters, Healers and of course the Paladin High Lords who are the elite branch. They are a relatively new branch of the order tasked with taking on threats that the outmatch normal paladins. They are put through special leadership and combat training that test their will, faith and might. Those who pass the tests are the very best of the best that the Paladin Order has to offer the world of Lore.

The Paladin High Lord is a warrior type class and some of their power is drawn from the Strength stat but others draw their magical damage from Int. I suggest Hybrid for decent damage but higher heals. That depends on how you like to play.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

PURIFYING FLAME

20 mana, 6 second cooldown

Shoots a ball of holy fire at your foe causing damage over time and a decrease in Crit for as long as your foe burns. Damage increase with each additional party member.

This is a pretty basic, magic based blast with a burn effect attached to it. Good for pulling from across the room. You will notice that we added some new functionality to each of these new classes in places... the skills are pretty good on their own but some skills like THIS one will get stronger and stronger with each additional player you add to your party!

This function will affect the base damage of the initial fire blast but won't change the DoT value.

WORD OF LIGHT

30 mana, 10 second cooldown

Heals you and your allies. The Heal grows strong with each person added to your party!

A very good AoE (Area of effect) heal that starts out good and only gets stronger and stronger with each player that accepts your party invite. It's a little costly but WELL worth the mana. This makes you VERY useful in party situations but contains more than enough healing juice to keep you patched up in a solo fight.

UNDERMINE

10 mana, 5 second cooldown

Stacks up to 5 times. Strike that does low damage but slows your enemy with each stack. Has a chance to stun Undead foes for 4 seconds.

Here is the pesky skill that you need to maintain. It's fast, light damage and costs next to nothing from your mana pool but the stacking haste debuff makes it one you should not underestimate. If you plan on skipping this skill just because you don't like keeping the stacks up that is your call but if I were you I would use it every time.

The pretty good chance that you'll stun an undead enemy is just gravy.

PURE BLOOD & SOUL GLOW

Rank 4 passives

Increase CRIT CHANCE by 12%

Increase DAMAGE by 10%

People tend to underestimate how much damage you get from these. A 10% damage increase takes a critical of 1000 all the way to 1100 and who doesn't like to crit 12% more?

LIGHT WAVE

30 mana, 10 second cooldown

You send out a wave of light that damages all enemies in range and reduces their damage for a short time. Effects grow stronger with more people in your party.

Here is your AoE Damage skill for taking out multiple enemies in a single room, It's a decent AoE with pretty high damage on its own BUT when you have a full party, with the right enhancements, you can take out entire rooms at once! It's also a good skill to use against bosses as well.

DIVINE HAND

Rank 10 passive

Your target suffers a massive blow from an unseen divine helper.

You've seen this before and you'll see it again. At rank 10, you suddenly gain a power that goes off randomly, costs no mana and does MASSIVE damage to a single target.

Now let's see the darker side of the coin...

DOOMKNIGHT OVERLORD CLASS SKILL SET

Empress Gravelyn is not pleased. Vordred, an undead soldier capable of resisting the light based paladin powers, was beyond her control. The necropolis, source of her undead armies, has fallen into the hands of an upstart little girl. Dage and Nulgath are fighting over the title of Lord of Evil which was a title that was hard won by her father, Sepulchure and hers by birthright. The time has come when Gravelyn has had enough. She has taken her elite DoomKnight soldiers, some of the strongest undead creates in her arsenal shaped in her father's image, and has superchaged them. The ritual was long, blindingly painful and mind meltingly complex. Most of the DoomKnights who entered the royal chamber on Shadowfall left as piles of ashes and bones but a few.. the darkest and strongest were reshaped into DoomKnight Overlords!

The DoomKnight Overlord is also a warrior type class and like it's lightside mirror image, draws power from STR and INT, so Hybrid is probably a good way to go. But you could try all Wizard or all Fighter enh and see what happens.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.

TORTURE

10 mana, 3 second cooldown

Magically torment your foe's mind, causing slight damage but also reducing their damage and crit. Damage increase with each additional party member.

This is a very nice lead-off power. The damage potential is EXCELLENT considering the tiny cooldown, strong damage and low mana cost of this ability. Tack the Damage AND Crit debuff onto this skill and it gets even better. Get a part full of friends and it becomes something staggeringly powerful.

SCREAMING DARKNESS

25 mana, 12 second cooldown

Causes all foes within range to burst into flames, dealing moderate damage and causing them to burn for Damage over time. Effects increase with each additional party member.

You get an AoE early in this class progression. Makes it easy to pull an entire room but dangerous if you don't have your third skill yet, but DOES significantly increase your damage output. The damage is balanced out with a pretty hefty mana cost and a long-ish cooldown. Remember that this power also gets stronger with additional party members and while the damage goes up the mana and cooldown never change so... go make some friends.

DARK CHALLENGE

25 mana, 10 second cooldown

Has a 50/50 chance of either stunning your foe a few seconds or giving you back some health. Healing effects increase with each additional party member.

Here is where you test your luck (not the stat). Either you are going to stun your foe (except for some bosses) OR you're going to cast a pretty beefy HoT (Heal over Time) on yourself. It's WIN/WIN! The advantage that this has over Pali High Lord is that your stun will work on a LOT more than just undead. The disadvantage is that it shares the skill with your heal so you can never count on what you're going to get.

As with any challenge you issue, you know what reaction you might get. You might need a heal VERY badly and only get a stun. If it enough to give you the upper hand? You might want a stun but get a heal when your lifebar is already full...

The HoT is decent on its own but gets REALLY strong with a full party, unfortunately a party does not affect your stun duration.

BLACK BLOOD & RAW HATE

Rank 4 passives

Increase CRIT CHANCE by 12%

Increase DAMAGE by 10%

The Pali High Lord has the exact same Rank 4 passives. More damage, more crits.

MIASMA

50 mana, 8 second cooldown

Deals massive damage and significantly lowers your target's ability to hit anything for a short while.

This is a HUGE damage power and it's strength is consistent even if you are on your own. The mana cost is VERY high and since you're on a warrior mana regen model the Hit debuff on your target is not your friend so be smart when you use this nuke. It's a great opener and a great closer and if you manage your mana well enough you can use it during battle too. Since the cooldown is only 8 seconds you should be able to use it as frequently as your mana allows.

DEATH KNELL

Rank 10 passive

Your foe is attacked by it' own shadow, dealing massive damage as it resists being pulled to the underworld.

It's a cool description but it comes down to the same thing as Pali High Lord's rank 10 passive. People who fully rank up this class will occasionally and suddenly deal a MASSIVE hit to a single target with no effect on the Doomknight Overlord's mana or cooldown.

The Big Picture

Looks like both classes are very good multi-purpose classes a lot like Dragonlord. Paladin High Lord has a more dependable heal but what it gains in survivability and party-usefulness it looses out in the raw damage potential which Doomknight Overlord enjoys. In PvP, if you party up, you will be a force to be reckoned with in BOTH of these classes.

Remember that we don't have unlimited funds so we've only made a fixed number of these toys and if we make more we want to make new characters so they are already Limited Quantity Rares.

Oh yeah, if you get both toys you can become the abomination I'm calling the DOOMPALADIN HIGH OVERLORD!

"Making the world... a darker place..."

The original DoomWood is one of the most popular and memorable storylines in the history of the game. Following up a hit (not unlike making a sequel to a hit movie) is a pretty big challenge. You need to take the story deeper... innovate... do something daring (and in our case, blatantely against the rules). This new DoomWood 2 Saga is a 5 parter which will start tonight. The story will start as so many of you were hoping, taking you deep within the Necropolis. But each week... it will spiral faster and faster into madness. If you want to make a hit sequel... you will have to break ALL the rules. I REALLY hope you enjoy it friend... BATTLE ON!

Artix & Vayle outside the Necropolis... good memories.

In tonight's release

DoomWood Part 2 Storyline begins!!!

New items throughout the release including shop items, monster drops, quest rewards designed by Dage, Solrac, Veneeria, Aegis, Jemini, end even Cysero!

2 new epic maps by J6

2 new storyline cutscenes by Samba

4 new monsters including the 5-headed Dracolich (which technically makes it 9 monsters since each head is animated as a seperate monster.)

New Necropolis music by Reeki (Warlic's apprentice)

Insane Challenge fight for Members

Blinding Light of Destiny Quest chain begins (2 quests released this week. Note: It will be the hardest and longest quest chain in the game... ever. Probably taking 6 months or more to fully complete. In a more reasonable amount of time you will be able to create OTHER weapons of Blinding Light will be used in later parts of DoomWood. As promised years ago, this quest chain is for both Free players and Members players.)

Sepulchure's Armor Quest chain begins (To reforge Sepulchure's DoomKnight armor back to it's former power.... there will be an opportunity for you to steal it.)

ATTENTION DragonFable players... I met with Geopetal and... in tonight's release we are dropping some MAJOR backstory plot bombs!

DoomKnight OverLord CHALLENGE FIGHT!

As a special bonus this week... we put in, what we believe, is an impossible battle against two DoomKnight OverLords. You have proven us wrong in the past. We are looking forward to your screenshots.

Xan Poster Heats Up Heromart!

Get fired up with our newest DragonFable-themed poster, NOW at HeroMart! Featuring Xan, DragonFable's premiere pyromancer, the poster comes with red-hot rewards in both DragonFable and AdventureQuest Worlds!

Both the signed and unsigned versions of the Xan Poster come with the Fire Claw Scythe, which has a special animation triggered by using the auto-attack skill! (You will need the spitfire enhancement equipped for the special to work.) Be the first in your party to show off this all-new, blazing battle technique!

The poster is 24" x 36" (61 cm x 91cm) and costs $25 USD for a version signed by all of the staff at the Lab, or $9.95 USD for an unsigned version!

GAME UPDATE:

Diozz's Live Draw was a lot of fun and the Artix vs. Sepulchure video is a HUGE hit! Also, the Member only Mid-Week Release is now LIVE! /join lightguard and talk to the paladin loremaster, Michem to start your new mini-adventure!

Behind the scenes: Artix vs Sepulchure

DoomWood Part 2 is coming... and this time, the story is going to break ALL of the rules and finally allow players to reforge the Blinding Light of Destiny. (The storyline will be available to ALL players.) Building excitement before DoomWood Part 2 begins... is a "WHAT IF" video. There has never been a showdown between the ultimate evil DoomKnight Sepulchure (Gravelyn's father who was the main villian of DragonFable and destroyed at the beginning AQWorlds by Drakath.), and the good Paladin Artix. (Well, as you know Artix MIGHT not not be a Paladin by the textbook defination... but he is 100% good.) This is all about to change in the debut of this action packed stop motion video... Artix vs Sepulchure! (I, um... really hope I do not lose? O_O)

I have been writing anything goes "ALL GAME" design note posts at www.Artix.com with even more insider news. Please bookmark it and check in daily. To create this video, we teamed up with rising star stop-motion animator Counter656. He animated the video by taking the soon to be released Artix and Sepulchure collector's action figures, chopping them up into smaller pieces, and adding TONS more joints. (Like they do on Robot Chicken.) . It took him about a week per minute of animation. Then he used Adobe AfterEffects to create the Special FX. The result is... amazing. I cannot wait to watch it in game with you tonight.

The figures in the video are our FIRST action figures and the team is incredibly excited -- mostly because if these do well, we get to create more in the future including Drakath, Dage, Warlic, Galanoth, J6, etc... The figures will be available VERY soon (like 3 to 5 weeks) at www.HeroMart.com and in U.S. based Toys"R"Us locations.

Artix (Paladin) figure includes:

5 exclusive cards for the AQworlds Card Game

Paladin's Castle - with working trap door.

Paladin HighLord Class

Paladin Highlord's Armor

Artix's Helm (not that he ever wears it... you should though!)

Highlord's Battleaxe of Destiny (Similiar to the Blinding Light)

Sepulchure (DoomKnight) figure includes:

5 exclusive cards for the AQworlds Card Game

DoomKnight's Castle - with working trap door.

DoomKnight Overlord Class

DoomKnight Overlord's Armor

Sepulchure's Helm (ULTRA RARE)

Overlord's DoomBlade

In addition to the regular Artix & Sepulchure figures we made a VERY LIMITED number of "Black Armor" variants. Because this is the 1st edition, they are expected to become very rare and desirable in the future. (*whispers* Like... leave them in the box if you manage to get one, ok?)

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Also tonight, there is a mid-week release. I am pretty sure it will be in this place in DoomWood... beause Cysero asked me to come up with 12 more Paladin names. (Thank you to everyone on Twitter who helped me!) One of my favorites was "Derpadin".... so we asked Beleen to draw us a Derp Paladin... "Where is Derpadin!?" I LOVE her Derp art! (Also be sure to check www.Artix.com later this week for a video of Beleen doing motion capture for the 3D game project.)

Twitter/FaceBook/Forums Question: On a scale of 1 to Derp, how much do you love Derpadin? "My love for Derpadin is [YOUR ANSWER] out of derp." It could be 5, 62, 8999, A, Blue, Leiderhosen, etc

Continuing your Deaducation

This week you will enter the Necropolis, land of the Undead and central campus of Necro U! You'll find skeletons, ghouls, and slimes of all shapes and sizes (the other students don't keep very good track of their minions and experiments!) and classes that might surprise you.

Mors potestas est, foetida potestas*

Take a look at some of the core courses offered by the fetid faculty of this fine Institution of Die-r Learning:

Dark Art History 305

From Witch to Lich: A Definition Primer

Spelling: Ars Necrotica to Zombie

Minion Management 606

Rules for Ghouls 201

Grains: Misguided Zombies and Agriculture

The Art of Re-animation

Nec-Romantic Literature

Music History: Grateful Undead to Rot Zombie

Home Necronomics: Slicing, Dicing, and Splicing

Now, none of these classes will be on your syllabus, they don't mesh with your very demanding schedule. But you'll find that the classes you do take will offer tips and tutorials on EXACTLY the kind of information you're seeking: clues to Vordred's nature and power! And, if you're lucky, you might find out just why Artix really shouldn't come to DoomWood.

What classes would YOU like to see offered at Necro U? Let us know on the forums!

* Thanks to Griffinfire and Graarg on Twitter for the Latin translations!

It's GOOD to fight for the Light

Mennace has made a whole host of Good-looking gear for the DoomWood rep shop! Dage is on drops for the monsters that suitably rock the necrotic vibe!

We know some of you have been saying that there's an imbalance between good items vs. evil-looking items, and DoomWood is the perfect place to address that. We'll keep stocking the rep shop with awesome items perfect for either alignment, so it's up to you which to equip!

More than just releases!

AQWorlds goes live every Friday, and the team is busy every day working to pump out releases which will please and tease you. But we've also got side-projects, back projects, and every-which-way projects going on behind the scenes.

Or, in this instance, right in front of your eyes! If you've visited www.AQ.com recently, you might have noticed that the front page has gotten a mini-makeover. Let us know what you think of it on the forums, and keep checking the pages around the site as they'll be getting a fresh look in the next couple of days!

Of course, that's not ALL that's going on in the Secret Underground Lab. If you've kept an eye on Artix's Facebook page, you already got the sneak peek at the Sepulchure action figure.

It's looking awesome, and we can't WAIT to pit Action-Artix against Action-Sepulchure in a war of ULTIMATE DOOOOMstruction as we sit around the AQW table! (The Twilly doll will be the referee.) For a glimpse of the Artix action figure, check out these Design Notes!

We've been asked on Twitter to add in a few more DoomWood daily rep quests. HOPEFULLY we will get to those NEXT week. For now, though, this Potionmistress is going to go chug a meal-potion and plan out your dark and twisted schedule of classes for Friday.